Former President Moshe Katsav's lawyers requested a scheduled Supreme Court hearing would be postponed over their family holidays on Thursday, after the court had already decided in an unusual move to discuss Katsav's case during its summer recess.

The former president was convicted in December of two counts of rape against the complainant publicly identified as A. from the Tourism Ministry, and was sentenced to seven years in prison.

He was supposed to have begun his sentence on the eight of May, but was allowed to remain free after the Supreme Court accepted his request to stay out of jail pending the outcome of his appeal.

However, Katsav's lawyers requested that the appeal hearing scheduled for August of this year would be postponed as well, as a result of a planned family holiday, saying that postponing the vacation could cause the lawyers emotional distress.

In an unusual move, the Supreme Court had already agreed to discuss the former president's appeal during what would have been its summer recess, requesting that both defense counselors and prosecution representatives make themselves available at specific dates.

Court officials estimated that the chances the Supreme Court would grant Katsav lawyers' request were low, seeing that the court had greed to grant his earlier request to delay the fulfillment of his jail sentence until after his appeal.

On Monday, the panel of judges who will hear the appeal of former president Moshe Katsav's rape conviction was announced, with Justices Miriam Naor, Salim Joubran, and Edna Arbel expected to preside over the August session.

At the appeal hearing earlier this week, Katsav's attorney Avigdor Feldman said at the start of the hearing that there was no concern that his client would evade justice if his prison term was delayed, and added that he did not pose a threat to society.

Feldman also said that the court should take into account special circumstances, such as the fact that Katsaz is a former president, adding that the court should avoid the possible occurrence in which Katsav will enter the prison as a former president, and will be equated of the charges shortly after.

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I feel that there is no justification for keeping a person convicted of
rape out of jail either because s/he wants to appeal the guilty verdict
or take a vacation. The rule of law should apply to all equally
regardless of previous occupation, status, ethnicity, religion,
political, sexual orientation or any other personal characteristics.

Just another tactic by his slimey lawyers to delay things even more,
what about the victims of his crime? They need closure on this issue so
they can get on with their lives. Maybe if Mr Katsav would like to
present to the court a calendar of dates when it would be convenient to
him to start his sentence ?

Why not just delay it until after Rosh Hashana 2020 because he needs to
spend the time with his family. I thought the whole idea of a PRISO
sentence was to deny the accused his normal civil rights and freedom
because of the crime committed and for which he was found GUILTY (not so?)

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